Show The King of Siam Kin I There are no words which so well express ex-press the relation between king and people peo-ple in Siam as the sacred phrase I to live I and move and haye ones being And what is this king his majesty Prabat Somdetch Pra Poranindr Manah Chula longkorn Pra Chula Chom Kao and in I what way is he using his almost divine influence to mould the future of his country coun-try Personally his majesty is one of the most charming of men and I pay him this tribute tho more easily because have had many opportunities of learning its justice well informed kind hearted strong in character for an oriental and full of dignity and he would be reckoned a handsome man and a gentleman anywhere any-where But there the praise must stop His life is one uninterrupted act of selfindulgence He was the father of two daughters before he was fifteen his first wife is his halfsister in order I i that the royal blood may be preserved from the taintof alien contamination is the deliciously inaccurate explanation ota recent writer upon Siam tho number I num-ber of wives and women in his palace is unknown everything concerning them i euphemistically known in Siamese Siam-ese as KanJ Naithe inside and is a strictly forbidden topic of conversation Since to have influence within the palace is the chief desire of every Siamese every attractive girl has been thrust upon his Majesty by her father for the past twenty years His chfldren must number more than a hundred The inside of the palace is nota suite of apartmentsit is a town The private personal environment of the king is not a householdit is a community Every Wife can load herself and her children to the ground with jewels every one of them has a private treasure chest Of the condition of this country indeed I in-deed even of his own capital the king knows next to nothing Whenever he goes out the streets are leveled and swept the soldiers and police don clean clothes and buckle on accoutrements and arms kept specially for such occasions The police boats are painted and anchored in rows the canals are cleared of logs and rubbish Bangkok puts on for his majestys eye an almost European air of propriety When he has passed the clothes and brig t arms are locked up airtWhen and everything relapses r into neglect and I When the king visits his country palace at Bangpain fifty miles up the river all hiswives and children with all their servants and all the princes go with him and a thousand people follow in his train The cost of all this is enormous When the kings relatives are cremated the ceremonial cer-emonial beggars description The last royal cremation Review cost 50000 Contemporary |